Pandora Film Grant

05/30/2026

Calling all filmmakers! Apply to our $12k short film grant today! 🎥✨

We’re a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that awards an annual prize of $30,000 worth of cash, equipment, and services to one Winner and three Finalist early-career US filmmakers for the production of their short, narrative film. 2026 prizes include:

💰 $12,000 Cash Grant
🎥 $15,000 Gold Package donation of PANAVISION equipment
🎞️ $1,000 KODAK Grant
🤝 Mentorship from an acclaimed, award-winning filmmaker from our mentor roster
🛡️ Discounted production insurance from ATHOS
💸 Fiscal sponsorship 

We accept projects at script stage OR already-filmed projects seeking finishing funds.

Link in bio to apply. Let’s make something. 🎬

2026 Mentors:
* Alma Ha’rel (.harel)
* Lila Neugebauer
* Lauren Wolkstein ()
* Sarah Elizabeth Mintz ()
* Chris Merola ()

2026 Sponsors:




Poster design by

02/11/2026

HERE WITH YOU, written & directed by Elaine Rava, deftly and poignantly explores su***de in a way we’d never seen. It shows a side of death that is rarely spoken about—one of benevolence, release and unification. And yet, within this exploration of the many facets of death, it maintains a life-affirming recognition of the beauty and love that is available to us in a human life. 

LOGLINE: After a failed su***de attempt, Peyton retreats to his sister’s home, where he’s forced to confront the guilt, isolation, and longing that stand between surrender and survival.

We feel confident in Elaine’s ability as an artist and filmmaker to translate this powerful script into a powerful film.

02/04/2026

BITE MARKS, written & directed by Rachel Debolski (), stirred us. The script captures a rarely acknowledged part of the female experience with striking honesty, while tapping into dynamics that feel deeply known across genders.

LOGLINE: After a late-night text from her crush and an accidentally loosed dog, Lexy, a polite and timid teenage girl, finds herself in an unsettling encounter with an older man, forced to navigate fear, fantasy, and the unspoken dangers of politeness.

We’re incredibly excited to see this story come to life. We believe its power will echo long after the film ends.

01/26/2026

Excited to announce our first Finalist for 2025! We’ll be rolling out posts for our other two Finalists over the next few weeks.

LATE BLOOM, written & directed by Jackson Kroopf (), poignantly and sensitively tackles themes of transcendence, role-models, and loss; against the backdrop of the rarely-appreciated natural side of Los Angeles.

LOGLINE: Guided by a dead father’s voice, two city teens run away into the canyons. When one tries to return and the other refuses, their bond ruptures between survival, longing, and who they’re becoming.

We have great confidence in Jackson and his team’s ability to bring this script to fruition in a dazzling and poignant way.

12/22/2025

A ginormous thank you to everyone who submitted this year—another amazing year of submissions (almost 2,000!). We continue to be astonished at the amount of powerful stories that we have the privlege of reading. There’s so many scripts that we cannot support that we know will go on to make powerful films. Art is subjective and not being selected by our grant is not an indication that your script will not resonate with audiences or lacks creativity or is in any way “worse” than then the winning and finalist scripts. It simply means the films resonated more with a very small group of people with very specific tastes. That goes for any festival, grant, or contest. We are not the arbiters of what makes good art. 

And now, without further ado, we are incredibly thrilled to present our winning project for 2025—REMEMBER HER written & directed by Leah Simone. Quite simply, this was the script that moved us most. It captures the complexity, confusion, and depth of love in the midst of trauma, mental illness, and suffering. It’s a deeply affecting story about family, and about the ebb and flow of emotional availability when those we love most are in pain. We are confident this heartfelt script will resonate deeply with many viewers.

LOGLINE: After receiving a call from her sister, who happens to be in labor, Jessi unexpectedly spends a revelatory afternoon with her estranged mother.

We feel exicted about Leah’s visual approach and the team she’s surrounding herself with and we look forward to seeing her bring the powerful experience that is on the page, onto the screen.




We’ll continue to roll out posts of our Finalist films over the next few weeks to share with y’all.

Keep dreaming, creating, and filming.

❤️

11/29/2025

Tomás Gómez Bustillo joins our Mentor roster for this years grant! Tomás’s debut feature, THE CHRONICLES OF A WANDERING SAINT (2023), was a creative revelation. Prior to his feature debut, he made several award-winning short films and co-founded an indie production company, Plenty Good, which has since produced several successful features. We feel super fortunate to have Tomás offerring his mentorship in our grant program this year. Our Winning or Finalist films will gleen a ton from Tomás’s tremendous creativity. Big ol’ thanks to for being down!

11/17/2025

Christopher Makoto Yogi is one of the most poetic and poignant filmmaker’s working today. If you haven’t seen his beautiful feature, I WAS A SIMPLE MAN, go watch it! We’re elated to have him as Mentor for our 2025 Grant. Christopher’s films often take place in his homeland of Hawaii, where’s he’s currently based. His films have screened at Sundance, Rotterdam, and other major fests. One of this years selected short films (either the Winner or a Finalist film) will have the opportunity to recieve mentorship from Christopher. A huge thanks for your participation!

11/11/2025

A few shots from the set of our Finalist film, INSIDE THESE WALLS, which shot last month. Written & directed by Melissa Fisher () and co-written by Jonathan Clark (). The film is a tender and grounded look into the current state of “extended family visits” (a.k.a “conjugal visits”) within the US prison system. Over the last decade, hundreds of U.S. prisons have ceased to offer any kind of in-person visitation despite the fact that inmates who nurturing and maintaining healthy family bonds is critical to inmates’ rehabilitation and reintegration into society. 

The film stars the talented dynamic duo of Isabella Briggs () and Bobby Soto (). Melissa and her team are is in the midst of post production and moving swiftly. She shared a rough cut with us just a week after filmming and it was already a powerful film. Super excited to see the finished product and have this shared with the world.

10/27/2025

Josephine Decker oozes creativity. One of the most audacious and bold filmmakers of her generation, we’re absolutely thrilled that Josephine has joined the Pandora Mentor roster for 2025! Josephine will be mentoring one of our Finalist or Winning films. Thank you !

10/21/2025